Bozeman Logging Company Awarded BLM Stewardship Contract

DILLON (Aug. 3, 2012) – The Bureau of Land Management’s Dillon Field Office awarded the contract for the Sun West Stewardship project to Osler Logging, Inc., out of Bozeman on July 16.

Treatment in the 220-acre project area is currently underway in Madison County in the wildland urban interface immediately adjacent to the Sun West Ranch subdivision.

By removing conifers, the BLM says the project will restore and promote aspen habitats, as well as salvage lodgepole pine stands undergoing epidemic levels of mountain pine beetle activity. This will help reduce fuel loading and mitigate the risk of wildfire to adjacent subdivisions.

The total net value to the government was $1,357 for the service work value of slashing non-merchantable conifers in aspen stands, which was estimated at $23,800. Aly Piwowar, a forester with the Dillon Field Office, said the project had a product value of $25,207 for 1,481 million board feet of softwood products and 3,000 tons of biomass material which were to be removed.

“This cooperative stewardship project will benefit the health of public and adjacent private lands, as well as support jobs and provide input to local economies,” Piwowar said. “This project is a proactive effort to manage fuels available to fire in the wildland urban interface. Removing conifers and promoting healthy, vigorous aspen will provide fire managers more options during a wildfire event.”

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2013, the BLM generated $4.7 billion in receipts from public lands.